I think I am pretty much in the same camp as SEANMCAD, when it comes to crafting.

Playing a keyboard game might be fun the first time, but after a while it would likely become tedious, and offer little in long term fun.

For me the key to having fun with crafting is this:

1) The items you craft have to be useful in the game. No one wants to waste time making stuff that nobody wants or needs. It seems obvious but it is still hard to accomplish in a game. This is what did in Voyage Century for me. They had perfectly good crafting and then ruined it with a patch that gave overpowered noob gear that rendered anything crafted useless.

2) Gathering mats is half the fun. Or at least it should be. Many might disagree with me here, but crafting should be like a scavenger hunt. When you craft a highly useful item you should be able to look at it and feel good about what you had to go through to create it. Just saying chop 50 trees and mine 150 ores doesn't cut it. Good crafting items need to be harder and rarer to access. Some type of battle or search that may even require assistance should be required.

3) Crafting should take time. Again people might disagree here. But if all you to do is buy some mats, toss em in the crafter, press a button and Voila!, then you really have no challenge. Something small or frequently used should be take relatively small amounts of time. But to craft something truly special should take a week or more. If it doesn't then people can simply crank rare or powerful stuff out and that takes the uniqueness and the satisfaction out of creating it.

4) Recipes, like Sean said, are key, because crafting is like cooking. It is the ingredients and the methods to make the best item possible or a good item better, that provides the fun. A little complexity and choice goes a long way to adding fun here, as long as you don't overcomplicate to the point of absurdity. Looking at you REPOPULATION. Make it like a good quest should be where you have multiple options to complete an objective and you have to decide what is best.

These are my general guidelines as to what makes crafting interesting and fun for everyone, including the people who don't like to craft. Crafting should be all about supply and demand. The crafter needs people who need their stuff. And people who need their stuff, need crafters and should be willing to help them to get the things they want.

And the final key to good crafting in a game:

5) All the weapons, armor, potions, and whatever should be crafted. No loot drops whatsoever. This is the hardest for people to take, but if all you need to do is kill some badass monster to get the most powerful sword or armor in the game, then you have completely negated the entire crafting process. A person should need the best crafted item in order to kill the badass monster, otherwise where is the demand and what is the purpose of crafting in a game?

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but as far as the process itself, a clean interface and intuitive process is really what you want. I don't think adding a "skill" factor in the way of dexterity or puzzle solving or things of that nature is really necessary. I think having to do crafting in a specific area or with specific tools being required is a good idea. Perhaps being able to build your workshop and upgrade it would be interesting.

My final thought is that the best MMO is one that integrates crafting into all levels of gameplay. I would even place crafting above combat in importance to an MMO. Not important in terms of fun, but important in terms of pulling together all elements of what makes an MMO fun, for the majority of players.

Fishing, usually one of my favs, sucked.Crafting, still haven't figured it out, nor do I feel like trying.Quests: ok but obviously not the point of this game as it is ridiculously easy to level just doing mindless grinding of mobs.Guild: well I tried pretty hard to join one, had a couple of offers but no one explained the procedure and after a couple hours of switching servers and trying to find who I was talking to, I just gave up.

Love the world and the graphics. UI is pretty cluttered though and I find it difficult to clean up. I have to say I had much more fun with LoTRo, and with much less clutter. I wish I still had the patience for these type of games but I guess it is time to hand over the reigns to the younger crowd.

All I wanted was to explore a nice detailed world but this game is just too cluttered and obviously catering to the twitch crowd, that I can't even find a comfortable role where I fit in. Never tried the trading, but that's the point. It is one of those game where people will say, " well you didn't put in the work" or " spend some time learning the game".

Valid points, but like many here say, if a game doesn't grab you quickly, hanging around won't change much. I played enough to level to 23 but really the desire to move forward is gone.

They scammed the supporters. Fragmanted is just another scam and they will not complete it as well.

This was far from a scam, a highly overused term in MMO's these days it seems.

They managed to produce a working alpha version of the game which I too paid money for. The problem here, is that unfortunately , while a SWG clone type of game sounds good on paper, making one which is actually fun to play, is a lot more difficult than it sounds. The game had issues with design, gameplay and graphics as well according to some people. The devs were always open and communicative about the game and did their best IMO to make it work. Sadly I think the alpha got raked over the coals by a lot of the community, and the devs had to make the decision to continue with what would most likely be a failed MMO , or cut their their losses and move on.

But thats the nature of this beast. It takes shitloads of money and man hours to create a good MMO. With crowdfunding and low budgets the chances of success are slim to none in most cases. However thats the risk you take by ponying up your money. Next time you see a project you like, just don't support it. That way you won't have to come back to the forums whining about how you lost money.